Langtry Manor

[4] The main source for the story, published by Laura Beatty in her book Lillie Langtry - Manners, masks and morals, was the hotelowner herself.

[1][7] Edmund died, aged 34, in November 1875, at his father's home of Eastwood, East Cliffe Road, Bournemouth.

[13] In January 1881 she held a notable fancy dress dance "at the Assembly Room of the Red House, Bournemouth".

[14] In September 1882 she held a "fashionable concert" at the Red House in aid of funds for the Bournemouth Dispensary.

[2] On 15 December 1883, Laura Ormiston Grant and Caroline Biggs held a suffrage meeting "at the home of Mrs Langton (The Red House, Derby Road)".

That year she resumed her maiden name of Massingberd by royal licence, describing herself as "of The Red House, Bournemouth, and of Gunby Hall, Lincoln, widow".

By 1901 the Red House was occupied by Henry Martin Cornwall Legh (1839–1904), a retired Colonel in the Grenadier Guards, and his wife Constance.

The first proprietors were Cecil Henry Ravenhill Hulbert (1895–1974) and his wife Dorothy Minnie, née Kemp (1899–1987), who named it the Manor Heath Hotel.

From July 1938 they actively advertised it in newspapers, and produced a brochure saying that the house was "built originally for Lily Langtry".

By the 1940s, when memories of Emily Langton Langton's activities at Bournemouth had begun to fade, local people or the hotel proprietors apparently muddled the names and began to say that the single lady who had lived at the Red House in the 1880s was none other than the notorious Emilie "Lillie" Langtry, the mistress of the Prince of Wales (who later became Edward VII).

[44] Edward Henry Stanley, 15th the Earl of Derby, was British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 21 February 1874 and 2 April 1878.

"[47] Lillie Langtry's physical relationship with the Prince of Wales, as far as it existed, ended in June 1880 when she became pregnant.

However, discovery of love letters made another interpretation possible - Lillie's old friend Arthur Jones from Jersey was the father.

[48][49] In 2006, Langtry Manor appeared as the subject of an episode of the Channel 5 television series The Hotel Inspector.

It has many original fixtures and memorabilia and has the advantage of feeling like a country house hotel just 15 minutes' walk from the beach.

'[51] In March 2015, the hotel changed hands and was taken over from the Howard family by the Meyrick Estate, which owned the freehold on the site.